


After She's Gone

by sleepyCJwritesSTUFFnow



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Cute, Dante (Devil May Cry) is a Sweetheart, Dante's fiancee died and now he's a single dad, F/F, F/M, Implied Relationships, One-Shots, Parent Dante (Devil May Cry), Single Parents, Trish is a bit of a little shit, Vergil and Lady are a little sassy, sad but fluffy, we love them all though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:02:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28084371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepyCJwritesSTUFFnow/pseuds/sleepyCJwritesSTUFFnow
Summary: After his fiancee died, she left Dante with their year old daughter. Now, still in the process of pulling himself back together, Dante, with the help of his brother and his friends, is recentering his life around his child as he tries to process his grief. One-shot.
Relationships: Dante/Original Character(s), Kyrie/Nero (Devil May Cry), Lady/Vergil (Devil May Cry)
Kudos: 9





	After She's Gone

Dante groaned and rolled over upon feeling little hands tugging at his hair. Slowly, he opened his eyes, sighed, and saw his year-old daughter giggling and still tugging at his hair. He squinted at his mobile, which kept lighting up with new notifications, and saw the time: 10:23 AM. Someone must have already fed her and, if that person were Vergil, he already wished he had just had to get up two hours earlier when she did so he wouldn’t owe his brother anything. Vergil already claimed to be greatly superior to him and the last thing he wanted was to give Vergil yet another thing he could claim to be better at. Still, even though he was scant to admit it, Dante was glad to have everyone with him. Vergil, Lady, Nero, Nico, Trish, and even Nico’s wife, Ella, had all helped him so much since his daughter had lost her mother and he, a fiancee.

“Dada!”

Dante chuckled a little and sat up, picking his daughter up in his arms. She grinned and kept tugging at his hair. When he finally stood up and started down the hall with her, she giggled.

“How are you, Ashley?” Dante smiled and ruffled her hair. “Hm? Well, I can’t let you just have fun. I have to get to mess with you too, don’t I?”

She grinned. “Snack time?”

“Hmmm….” Dante raised his eyebrows and tapped her nose. “Well, let’s see about that.”

Little Ashley Sparda pouted. “I want cookie.”

Dante considered that as they walked into the main front of the  _ Devil May Cry _ store, where, off to the side, he had a microwave, a couple of cabinets, and a sink. The laundry machine was in a closet on the other side of the store, which wouldn’t be so clear if it weren’t for the piles of laundry and baskets near it. He sat his little girl down on top of his desk, and almost immediately she started reaching for the small trinkets and toys he kept on there just because of her. Since her birth, he had moved all of his weaponry up into the cabinets and secure ceiling panels where he knew she couldn’t reach them and, thus, his desk was far more barren than it had been in the days where it was littered with guns, unpaid bills, empty pizza boxes, and, of course, a singular portrait of his mother.

Next to that portrait, now, was a second photograph, one of his daughter and her mother shortly after she had been born. Especially now, looking at the photograph made his heart drop. It had been barely a month since Amelia had died, and thinking about her left him feeling empty. Ashley still didn’t know what had happened, and he hated the mere thought of having to tell her about it one day. Was it possible that Lady or Trish would do it for him? Nico and Ella certainly wouldn’t, although, admittedly, he doubted either of them would do anything if it weren’t for (a) money or (b) materials to fuel Nico’s weapons obsession. With a small sigh, Dante glanced over towards his daughter and saw her squishing a small ball of playdoh in her hands, looking rather pleased with herself. 

He still couldn’t get over how much she looked like him; from her white hair to her strong jaw, but she had her mother’s unusual violet eyes and that was the first thing he saw when he looked at her. Unlike Nero, who bore little resemblance to the woman who had abandoned him shortly after birth, Ashley staring at him reminded her father so distinctly of her mother that it hurt. Knowing, too, that his fiancee had been killed in an accident only made it worse. There was no one he could blame for it but bad luck; it was nothing like the death of his mother or, later, that of his father. There was no larger, inhuman evil for him to fight and stop killing innocent people. It was shit luck, and that was so infuriatingly intangible that he almost wished there were a demon out there for him to get revenge on.

“Dante!” Vergil called out, wrinkling his nose in disgust as he entered the shop. “You could do to take better care of this place. I can’t even imagine what your clients think when they come in here.”

“They don’t think anything of it, Verge,” Lady rolled her eyes at him and quickly walked over to Ashley with a smile. “Hi, Ash,” She said, letting the babbling little girl hug her. “Did your daddy just wake up?”

“Of course he did,” Vergil cast a disdainful look towards his brother. “You should know that Nero and Kyrie took her out this morning. I believe they left you a note in the case you had arisen before they had returned….but evidently they think much too highly of you.”

Dante turned around and scowled at his brother, waving the note that had been taped to the cabinet at him. “See this?” He said, pointing at it with a bored look on his face. “I’m not worried.”

Vergil frowned. “What should I have expected?” He muttered.

“Well,” Lady shot him a warning look before turning back towards Dante. “How’s it been so far today?”

“She woke me up,” Dante remarked, opening a cabinet and reaching for a coffee mug. “Just a little while ago, too. How am I supposed to know?”

Lady shook her head. “You’re a man child, Dante.”

“And you,” He said, raising his mug in her general direction with a smirk. “Have been spending far too much time with my brother.”

Vergil crossed his arms. “Foolish as ever, aren’t you, Dante?”

Dante rolled his eyes. “You’ve been saying that about me for years. At this point, I don’t even know what you mean by it.”

“I do,” Lady remarked under her breath, pulling herself up onto Dante’s desk next to Ashley. “Yeah, I know,” She tickled the little girl with a smile. “Your daddy and uncle are quite the opposite, aren’t they?”

Dante and Vergil both turned their heads toward her and glared. Lady simply laughed. Over the years -- and especially since the brothers had come back to Fortuna from hell -- she had the pleasure of enjoying the two of them taking increasingly cheap shots at each other, some of which boiled down to them simply trying to assert dominance. Though Trish in particular was vocally tired of seeing the two of them go at it, the antics of the sons of Sparda never quite grew old to Lady who, never really having a family of her own, loved seeing what one could look like even if it were often far from ideal. Vergil had changed so much and, dry and irritable as he often was, she knew full well that hell had changed him and she loved the man he had become.

If the thought had crossed her mind when they had first met, when he had been working alongside her father, she never would have imagined that he would be capable of being better than that. For so long, she had thought he was nearly as bad as her father. But now? Now, he was secretly attentive and kind when he was alone with her; he was a perfect, Victorian gentleman and Lady, having spent so long around coarse men of the modern day, appreciated his restrained nature and the homages it paid to a different time. Besides, she was a huntress first and foremost. Her entire life, it seemed, had been devoted to killing demons and all sorts of monsters. That was her calling and she was just as sure of it now as she always had been. Having Vergil in her life only made it easier, and made her feel more herself. She didn’t have to hide anything from him, and he alone was the only person she had allowed to get truly deep in her head.

Lady laughed again when the doors to the store opened suddenly and she saw the flashing lights of the  _ Devil May Cry _ van just outside. Trish sauntered in, holding a half-sealed envelope in one hand. In the other was a small, rather condensed book, which she threw at Vergil’s head. He deftly caught it and shot her a dirty look as she sauntered towards Dante (who had finally found the coffee grounds and was starting his brew) to slap down the envelope on the counter next to him. Dante didn’t even flinch, but Lady caught his eyes widening in child-like excitement. They all knew exactly what Trish had brought him, and it was the extra money from his last spat of jobs from a few months before. Since his fiancee’s death, he hadn’t worked and instead spent all of his time either asleep or with his daughter, not giving a fuck about anything else. 

Trish briefly turned around to share a look with Lady, both of them well aware of Dante’s general lack of “fiscal responsibility” (something the Legendary Devil Hunter disputed), but then she smacked him in the back of his shoulder, shaking her head. Dante merely chortled, smirking at her and finishing making his coffee while she leaned against the counter with a disapproving look. Vergil almost bit off a comment on his brother’s “blatant and unfortunate naivate” but Lady kicked him in the back of the shin before he began and he held it back. Off her prodding, he had been  _ attempting _ to be nicer to his brother although how much he succeeded was certainly debatable, especially given that Dante enjoyed pushing him towards anger. Trish, however, not fucking around, gestured to the envelope with a scowl.

“Ella says that if you ever make her jump through that many hoops with tax law again that she will kill you in your sleep,” Trish darkly warned him. “Apparently she had to make at least twenty different calls to convince people that you aren’t using your shop as a way to embezzle hundreds of thousands of dollars, although, by the looks of this place, if that were what you were doing, then you’d be wasting your time.”

“If Ella wanted to kill me, she would have done so by now,” Dante shrugged and took another sip of his coffee. “Still can’t believe Nico married an accountant of all things, but I guess that’s what she wants. Bet Ella doesn’t nag her like this.”

“Nico runs a pretty tight business,” Lady put in mildly. “Dante, you do know that you frequently tell Morrison that you need him to find you more clients so that you can keep making money without stealing shit, right? Because, if I recall, you suggested orchestrating a jewel heist as a viable way of making money about a year ago.”

“That could have helped him a great deal,” Vergil muttered. “If he did successfully steal a couple million dollars worth of jewelry, he could have easily pawned it off and never had to work again.”

“You think so lowly of me,” Dante shook his head and, hearing his daughter starting to whine, pulled pizza out of the fridge and walked over to her with a slice of cheese, ripping off a few pieces for her to chew on. The one year old calmed down quickly and smiled contentedly at her father, who ruffled her hair as he continued to give her little bits to snack on. “You don’t though,” He affectionately said to his little girl. “You think I’m great. Vergil’s just a dick.”

“That kid is going to learn to swear before they can say much more than the few words they already know,” Vergil remarked, a hint of disapproval in his voice. “She’s going to be the menace of other parents once you have to send her to school.”

“Yes,” Dante took on a mischievous look. “Please annoy other people’s parents when I have to send you to preschool,” He whispered to her. “You’re a Sparda. If we’re good at anything, it’s annoying people. Do me a favor and prove it.”

“He’s going to be a terrible influence on her,” Vergil murmured to Lady. “I’m almost afraid to know what she’ll learn from him.”

“I disagree,” Lady quietly said, reaching over to take his hand. “He loves her so much. You’ve seen him use his projection abilities to tuck her in even when he goes on jobs. He’d do anything for her.”

“Perhaps,” Vergil quirked his lips up in an uncharacteristic smile. “Either way…..I should think she’s fine for now. All we have to do is keep his finances in check.”

“I can manage fine!” Dante called over to him, picking up his daughter. “Right, Ash?”

“Dada!” Ashley excitedly declared, grinning and wrapping her arms around his neck.

Vergil shook his head. “You never change, Dante,” He said, eyeing him sharply for a moment. “But, for once, that appears to be good. At least, for her, you’ll be a steady presence.”

“She is my daughter,” Dante replied, sassily sauntering towards the van with his little girl on his hip. “Now, Ash, let’s go see what the weapons smith and her suit-clad wife have to say about me this time, eh?”

The little girl only giggled, not really understanding but, then again, it wouldn’t be all that long before she did and her father wanted her to be able to have what he and Vergil never had: to be able to savor being innocent and happily young for as long as she could and he would do anything to ensure that for her. Her future was everything to him, and he was going to secure it no matter what else it cost him. Ashley was his light, and he was ready to do whatever it took to keep her from fading out, even just a little. She was his reason to keep going on, to keep pushing himself forward and he saw her mother in her, something he knew he would always be proud of.


End file.
